My Other Stuff

February 13, 2005

Well Steve if this is true, what is stopping you? I'd buy it in a minute. And trash it just as fast if it was crap -but thats another story.

I'll make a bet though, it will never happen. Why? Because Apple is too arrogant to learn from their stratigical mistakes. In the early 90's PC manufacturers were begging Apple to license the Mac OS. Jobs said no. The rest is history.

I hope I'm wrong, I dream of a day when I could own a dual boot PC with OS X and WinXP residing in the same box. This would be a great chance to experience the two OS's side by side and compare strengths and weaknesses. Competition is good for consumers. Period.

Granted, Microsoft is arrogant, and makes lots of mistakes, but it learns and learns fast. Just remember, Apple still sells a mouse with only one button. That tell you anything?

"Launched in October 2003, Radar Golf has developed a U.S. Golf Association-conforming golf ball that contains a radio-frequency tag. The company's Ball Positioning System (BPS) technology enables a golfer to find a "lost" golf ball via a RadarGolf Handheld device. The handheld device "beeps" when pointed toward the ball. Detection range is 30-100 feet."

September 29, 2004

If you think it's only jobs that are being outsourced to low-income nations, think again. Now online gamers can outsource the drudge work of actually playing the games!
I've heard about the lively trade of game characters and objects on the net. But now you can pay others to do this for you. To name one example, Russian gameplayes are making $100 a week to play all day. The most productive players can earn up to 500$ a week.

September 09, 2004

While re-reading a portion of "Competing for the Future" by Hamel & Prahalad, I ran across this sentence: "A company surrenders tomorrow's businesses when it gets better without getting different". My thoughts returned again to one of the fundamental themes of my working life. That is, how can we manage to loosening our grip on improving what we know how to do, while still being open and adventurous enough to do things completely different for and in the future?

Whether we think about it on a daily basis or not, getting different is the ultimate goal we strive to achieve together with our customers. Going beyond helping them to be better to helping them become different.

This process moves focus from fighting for market share to inventing new markets. It is the exact opposite of positioning products and services for niche markets. It’s all about changing the rules and moving momentum from "what is" to "what could be".

According to Hamel & Prahalad, to create the future, companies have 3 choices:
(1) change in some fundamental way the rules of engagement in a long-standing industry, (2) redraw the boundaries between industries, (3) create entirely new industries. The capacity to invent new industries and reinvent old ones is the key to getting to the future first as well as the precondition for staying out front.

This isn’t a game just for newcomers, incumbents can participate as well. While newcomers can change industry rules, only incumbents can regenerate core strategies to accommodate the relentless pace of change in their industries as well as reinvent their industries altogether.

Design has a huge role to play in this transformation process. More on this later...

It all adds up to the same thing. Storing 100 terabytes (thats 10.000 gigabytes) on a 3,5" disc. At least thats the claim from the president of Colossal Storage Corporation, Michael E. Thomas.

The drive has an estimated price of $650 and will use removable discs at 45 dollars a pop. On top of that incredible density, the data is stored holographically (in three dimensions) on the optical media, which enables: "...reading and writing billions of bits [ten terabits/second] at one time in volume x,y,z)." I don't quite know what all that means but 10 terabits/second is off the charts as far as r/w speed goes. On the other hand the access speed may be glacial, who knows. All I know is that at cocktail parties for years to come, just the mention of "3D Volume Holographic Optical Storage Nanotechnology" has got to impress somebody.

We will first be able to see these wonders of science it is estimated in 5 years. Probably just in time for the RC2 of Longhorn!

April 14, 2004

You have to love their sense of humor. Google is hiring engineers for their Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering project, or G.C.H.E.E.S.E for short. It is a fully integrated research, development and technology facility at which Google will be conducting experiments in entropized information filtering, high-density high-delivery hosting (HiDeHiDeHo) and de-oxygenated cubicle dwelling.

Candidates will need to be highly-qualified individuals who are willing to relocate for an extended period of time, are in top physical condition and are capable of surviving with limited access to such modern conveniences as soy low-fat lattes, The Sopranos and a steady supply of oxygen.

They have been accepting applications since posting this job opportunity on the first of April.

March 11, 2004

In the future when you tell someone that they are full of crap it might be a compliment. Researchers have uncovered a way to use human waste, yes crap, to make electricity. The side benefit is that it breaks down the organic sewage and acts as a sewage-treatment plant at the same time.

March 02, 2004

Organizations like fish need to stay fresh. The more fresh the fish, the better they taste and the higher the price. Keeping organizations and companies fresh and innovative is not always easy, especially in the face of success. The Japanese fishing industry was faced with similar challenges several years ago.

The Japanese love their fresh fish. At one point in time the demand for fresh fish outstripped the supply in the nearby waters. The fishermen were forced to build bigger boats and to travel farther away from the islands to fill their nets. The farther away they sailed the longer it took to get back home. The fish they brought back to land were not fresh and the Japanese wouldn’t pay top price for the fishermen's catch.

The fishermen built bigger boats and equipped them with freezers. This allowed them to travel farther and to stay away longer. The Japanese didn’t like the taste of frozen fish and prices were accordingly.

The fishermen built even bigger boats and put in tanks for the fish to swim in while waiting to be brought back to land. After a few hours of activity the fish became listless and just laid around tail to fin hardly moving at all. Well, needless to say, the Japanese didn’t like the taste of lazy fish.

So what did the fishermen do? What would you do to keep the fish tasting fresh? The answer isn’t exactly obvious but the solution is incredibly simple.

The fishermen threw a couple of sharks into the tanks to keep the fish, so to speak on their toes. Nothing like a shark in the water to keep you alert.